Teen Titans #7Review

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Teen Titans feels like a time capsule from the 90s and not in a good way.

By Benjamin Bailey

Teen Titans #7 is not a very good comic book. It's pretty and nice to look at, but once you sit down to actually read the thing, it completely unravels. It's over-written, wordy, confusing and boring. Really, it feels like it was written in 1996, back when all those things were industry standards and people generally just wanted super detailed artwork and fight scenes.

You know those moments in a comic book when a character says way too much than could possibly be said in that given scene? Like, when someone jumps off a ledge and spouts an entire monologue before they hit the ground? Teen Titans #7 is filled with those kind of moments. Every single character talks the entire time. They tell you what they doing (even when the art clearly shows you); they tell you what they are thinking and they tell each other things that they all should already know. It's over scripted to the point of being embarrassing. And yet, despite all those words filling every single page, it's difficult to tell exactly what the hell is going on. Too much happens off panel or in other series. Telling the reader to buy a different comic series to see the fight that is concluding in this issue is ridiculous and completely unjustified.

The one positive thing about this is issue the art. Brett Booth's pencils, Norm Rapmund's inks and Andrew Dalhouse's colors all do their job very well. It still feels a bit overblown at times, but it gets the point across. Booth has done a great job on this series and definitely adds some dynamics to the story that the words do not. It's a shame that Lobdell doesn't trust him more to let the art convey the message. Kid Flash's head hurts? Yeah, we can see that, we don't need dialogue telling us that too.